Category Archives: Media

Not the Sharpest Knife in the Drawer, Part Whatever

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One contributing factor to newspapers’ current problems might be that some of their management might not be too bright.  A former Raleigh N&O writer blogs about a memo sent out by one of the editors at the paper with his/her evaluation of that day’s issue:

A few comments on some good work in today’s paper:
–A lively front page that gave our readers plenty to talk about.
Has the political right truly turned the corner and will cease to
demonize opponents on so-called moral issues, or are we witnessing the
boldest, most cynical, most hypocritical political spin in modern
history? What is one to make of John McCain’s greeting at the Twin
Cities airport yesterday of America’s most famous baby mama with a warm
hug, and the apparent attaboy pat on the shoulder for the
self-described “f***ing redneck” baby daddy? Are we now celebrating
teenagers’ raging hormones?
The claims department feature (see 8a) is a great reader service. I
would like to see more scrutiny of the “facts” in Sarah Palin’s speech
last night.

Now to our local politicians….Is Kenn Gardner just an inept liar
or a man so greedy that he doesn’t care whether we think he’s an inept
liar as long as he gets paid?

–A newsy and entertaining Triangle&Co. front.
I’d bet that Barry Saunders is hearing a lot of amens this morning as
well as feeling a lot of hate. Good. A columnist should stir ‘em up.
Much of America may have forgotten, but the black community has a very
long memory of Republicans demonizing black unwed moms. The black
wire–radio and a growing black blogesphere–is crackling this morning
with wicked “Juno” jokes. In general, black bloggers (wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com. A warning to the easily offended, the name is a big clue)  are having a great time with the GOP show in Minneapolis.

–Lots of interesting people stories in the sports section about
college athletes and the pros. For those following tennis’ sibling
rivalry, Serena has gained a slight lead by beating older sister Venus
in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.

–Good, timely story–and an inviting headline (Life over breasts)– on the Life, etc. cover.

Given that the cardinal sin that newspapers and other news outlets are accused of committing is "bias" you would think that a manager at a prominent news outlet would avoid putting his/her biases in writing.  Everyone has biases, but when you’re in a business that lives off of its reputation for objectivity, well you just might want to keep those biases to yourself.  If you put it in writing it will find its way to someone you don’t want to see it.  We’ve had email and the web for, oh, 15 years or more and to think that someone in the media wouldn’t realize this would go public is just too dense for words.

NCAA Clueless

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It seems the NCAA has a policy on journalists blogging from the body’s sanctioned events.  In some instances journalists have been booted from the press box for violating the policy:

This isn’t the first time the NCAA has cracked down on blogging. In
June 2007, Brian Bennett of the Louisville Courier-Journal was thrown
out of the press box for posting live updates on a Louisville-Oklahoma
State baseball game. The NCAA said in a memo to reporters that "no blog
entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each
game." Scott Bearby, an associate general counsel for the NCAA, told the New York Times
that the governing body had a right to protect the contracts it
establishes with television networks and its own Internet providers.

According to the article the policy "allows for only five blog entries per half, one at halftime and two in an overtime period of football and basketball games."  This is incredibly stupid on so many levels, but to start with let’s state the obvious:

  • People are going to live blog an event, whether or not its from the press box.  The NCAA apparently missed the whole "citizen journalism" memo.
  • The way traditional media are bleeding jobs the NCAA should be grateful for any coverage they’re getting.
  • I don’t care how good the blogger is, reading about the action won’t hold a candle to actually watching the game or listening to it on the radio. We don’t watch the games merely to get the scores, we watch to see how the scores come about.
  • How is a blogger interfering with the official "internet providers"?  If a blogger can replicate what an "internet provider" is providing then the NCAA has some seriously crappy contracts.

The NCAA is exhibiting the same kind of behavior I’ve seen with some companies. They have this whole concept of image control and traditional media management that is being completely blown out of the water by the developments of the last 5-10 years.  They don’t seem to realize that in today’s media environment it is impossible to control the message and that rather than trying to micro-manage the messengers they should concentrate on creating an environment that prompts the messengers to speak positively of them in their own way.

To use the NCAA case as an example I’d say they’d be better served if they embraced the bloggers.  Some ideas:

  • Have a box on the official "internet providers" streaming video that shows RSS feeds of all the bloggers covering the event.  So if it’s a football game the viewer could see what the bloggers are writing next to the window that’s showing the streaming video feed (if that’s what it is).  This would allow the fans at home to see what others are saying and compare it to what they’re seeing with their own eyes.
  • Have the producers of the broadcasts monitor the feeds and react to interesting items on the air.  They already do that with emailed questions that the on air analysts answer, so why not use the feeds for on air fodder?  Think about it for a second and you realize that the "official" media would be getting extra content for nothing.  Why would they not want that?
  • Easy objection to the above: What if the bloggers are saying something negative about the commentators or the player?  Well, it’s going to be said/written anyway and you might as well give your official providers a chance to respond in their own defense.  And hey, nothing jacks ratings like a little controversy.

Hat tip to John Robinson for the link to the story.

Standing in for the Winston-Salem Journal

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So I woke up and flipped on the TV at the ungodly hour of 5:45 a.m. to check the weather on WXII and see what the youngest should wear to the bus stop.  Had I hesitated a mere three seconds to fully wake up I’d have realized the TV wasn’t necessary as it was raining so hard it sounded like Santa and his mangy reindeer were on my roof four months early and playing a game of soccer.

As I eased into full consciousness I realized that the anchors were talking about the Winston-Salem Journal and so I turned up the volume.  Seems that the Journal is having some issues with its printing press so they turned to WXII to let their five remaining subscribers, me among them, that they need not wade through their ponds yards in search of their paper since they won’t be delivered anytime before leaving for work.  Fully appreciating the irony, and wanting to help my homeys downtown in that bustling hive known as the WSJ newsroom, I’ve decided to provide my fellow readers with a faux-Journal until the Journal’s back on its feet.  Here goes:

  • The following government agencies had meetings last night.  This is what they talked about.  Don’t ask us what it means.
  • Someone robbed someone else.  Police are searching for some suspects, have found others, and will keep us posted.
  • Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is a big hospital and be sure to read our daily story about something to do with it.
  • Ask SAM features another question pulled from Life in Forsyth
  • Letters to the Editor Summary: If our leaders would just remember that everything they need to know is in the Bible then everything would be good.  Amen.
  • Editorials: Someone did something, and while we think they’re swell and all and we’re sure they’re trying their best, really they’re a bunch of flaming idiots.  Here’s what we think they should do and we know best because, you know, we’re editors. (Isn’t this deliciously ironic considering it’s being written by a guy who spouts off on an eponymous blog?)
  • Business: Krispy Kreme did something.  Reynolds did something.  Wachovia still afloat and really still our hometown bank.  What’s BB&T?  Here’s an AP article about some small business in San Diego, which we’re running because we don’t have any small businesses here.
  • People died.  Some have gone to be with their creator, others are walking peacefully with Jesus, and some are even dearly departed.
  • Virginia Foxx did something and we disagree with her.
  • Sports:  As always NASCAR’s our lead, but we’ll figure out which major development to run under the story about Brian France’s hemorrhoids.
  • Finally our question of the week: If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear it does it really make a sound?

If this doesn’t do it for you I guess you could just go to the Journal’s website.

links for 2008-07-23

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PaidContent Bought

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Back in
early 2002 I was working for a b-to-b publisher in Washington, DC and
was very tired of the commute in and out of the city.  I decided to go
out on my own as a consultant and my first client was MarketingSherpa, which had been launched by Anne Holland not too long before that.  At the same time PaidContent.org was launched by Rafat Ali and since they were in similar businesses the two companies bumped into each other on occasion.

PaidContent was more of a "newsy" operation while MarketingSherpa
was more of a "how-to" for marketers.  I haven’t talked to Anne in
years, but by outward appearances MarketingSherpa is doing very well
and I think she’s built a sustainable business based on email
newsletters that are free (content is put behind a firewall after a
couple of weeks, so it must be purchased if you want to see it after
that), and then selling premium content like reports and events to the
large base of free subscribers.  From what I can tell PaidContent went
more in the direction of ad sales as a revenue stream, although they
also sell ads and host events, and they too seem to be doing very
well.  So well, in fact, that PaidContent is being purchased by the Guardian Media Group out of the UK.

Nice to see all the hard work has paid off for Ali and his crew, and
I’m also glad to see Anne continuing to do so well.  They also have
shown that there’s more than one way to skin a cat in the online media
world.

Esbee the Muckraker

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I was sitting on the deck reading the morning paper while slurping my cuppajoe when I stumbled upon an article in the Local section titled Salem Promo Attracts Notice with an accompanying picture of Oprah Winfrey in standard graduation ceremony dress.  It sounded hauntingly familiar and I knew why when I read this:

What kind of women go to Salem College?

Let’s hear it from someone who experienced it firsthand …

Oprah Winfrey?

The indomitable talk-show host attended Tennessee State University,
but the above lines from a promotional video for Salem College are
generating a lot of buzz online.

The video aired last fall as part of a showcase of Piedmont colleges done by WFMY-TV.

Lucy Cash recently posted it on her blog, "Life in Forsyth," spurring a wave of reaction.

"Everyone seems to be reading that blog," said Jacqueline McBride, the director of communications at Salem College.

I knew it!  Esbee, aka Lucy Cash, wrote a post about the rather misleading Salem College promotional video featuring Ms. Winfrey.  It’s misleading in the sense that it makes the average person think that Ms. Winfrey has a deeper relationship with Salem College than her appearance as a commencement speaker in 2000.  Esbee really is a muckraker isn’t she?

But let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture and see the news cycle for this particular story. First there’s the fact that this video was produced by a local television station, WFMY, for a feature on local colleges.  So a local station, with its own news operation, didn’t see anything untoward about the school’s allusions to Winfrey’s ties to the college.  Next, the school so likes the video that they buy it and post it on their website and their own YouTube channel.  So far, so good.  Over six months later Esbee finds the video and posts about it. **Correction received via email from Esbee: "Small correction: Salem didn’t put the video up until last week. It aired six months ago, but i
didn’t see it until they posted it on YouTube." ** Then, almost two weeks after that the Winston-Salem Journal picks up the story and runs with it.

This leads me to ask the same question I’ve been asking for at least two years: why in the world doesn’t someone at the Journal figure out a way to get Esbee under their umbrella?  I suspect they get plenty of story leads from her that she never gets cited on, which I understand is the way the game is played since her blog is a public domain and Journal staffers have as much right to read it as we do, but they don’t get any of her traffic.  Instead they’ve floundered about with their own blog efforts, trying to get their already stretched staff to blog in addition to their reporting, but not realizing that just because you can write a news piece doesn’t mean you can be a good blogger.

Folks like Esbee, entrenched in their community, gifted with a "voice" that attracts local readers like honey to pollen, are gold.  You can’t fake what she does and you can’t snap your fingers and say to your metro reporter, "Hey, I want you to invent something as creative as ‘And I mean exact’."  I’m not even saying they should have tried to hire her.  They could have simply approached her with some sort of offer that would have allowed her to retain her independence and yet benefit them with traffic and ad revenue.

But who knows.  I’m sure there’s some perfectly logical reason, and who’s to say Esbee would have gone for it.  Maybe they did try to woo her, but somehow I doubt it.  This is the same organization that is trying to survive by making the tactical decision to cut head count, which in my humble view is a strategic error that could sink the business.  I’ve written many times that the one advantage that newspapers have always had is their "feet on the street" and depth of coverage of local events.  Sadly, that ’tis no more.

Oh, BTW, Esbee’s next "And I Mean Exact" is being posted at 1 p.m. today.  Be there or be square.

Pigs Flying, Snowballs in Hell

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I’m shocked, SHOCKED, to read an article that has me vociferously agreeing with my very own Congress Critter Virginia Foxx.  Go get ’em Ms. Foxx.

I wonder if Congresswoman Foxx has read this little ‘ol blog of mine. If so and if she’s also read BlueNC and is still willing to co-sponsor the Blogger Protection Act then I have to give her a lot of credit for putting principles before what I’d expect is a little bit of disdain for the likes of me and others who snipe at her while sitting at home in our sweats, hammering out inane musings on our PCs.

Esbee Weighs In on the Local Newspaper Thing

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Esbee approaches the local newspaper issue from her own angle.  Essentially she wants to return to the days when newspapers wrote more of their own stuff (i.e. relied less on wire stories) and actually used language that didn’t prompt slumber. I’d love to see the paper provide more stories like Esbee’s take on crime reporting.  To wit:

Winston-Salem police say that a
heavy-set villain robbed the Wachovia bank branch on Martin Luther King
Jr. Drive about 11 a.m. Monday.

A
surveillance-camera image shows the villain looking up menacingly as he
looms over the bank’s security guardian. The villain gestured
threateningly with an instrument of death to force the guardian to lie
down, police Capt. David Clayton said.

The
villain is described as black, in his 30s, 6 feet tall, about 350
pounds, with a thin mustache and goatee. He wore a gray, hooded
sweatshirt with blue sleeves and a thick white stripe on the side and
on the sleeves. He left in a blue Cadillac. He may or may not have the
power to shapeshift.

Any citizen with information that could foil this villain should call Crime Stoppers at 727-2800!

Esbee’s commenters then provide even more, suggesting "corpulent bandit" to which Esbee replies with "El Bandito Gordito."  Any time you can weave a description that suggests a role for Jack Black into a story you’re doing something right. 

Headlines

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I’m no grammarian so please keep that in mind as you read the following.  I’ve noticed lately that I have to re-read headlines to make sure I understand what the author is trying to say.  I understand that headline writers are dealing with very limited space, but sometimes I think they need to be edited a little more closely.

Here’s one I found today on WXII’s website: Woman in Court Accused of Killing Daughter.  Uh, is the court accused of killing the daughter or is the woman?  Can a court kill a daughter? Wouldn’t a better headline be Woman Accused of Killing Daughter is in Court? I mean you’re adding two letters and a total of four spaces and it’s a website for goodness sake so space isn’t that precious.

There’s this headline found on the Winston-Salem Journal’s website, although the article originally appeared in the LA Times: Features of New $5 Bill Aim at Thwarting Counterfeiters.  Can features aim?  At a minimum wouldn’t it read better if it was written as "aimed"?  Or how about New Features of $5 Bill Intended to Thwart Counterfeiters.

I understand that the idea is to convey the main thrust of the story in a few words, and I don’t think that you can always do it and be grammatically correct at the same time.  But if the idea is to get the point across quickly then I don’t think it’s a good headline if it causes the readers to say, "huh?" when they read it.  So with that criteria I think the first headline is pretty bad, while the second headline doesn’t really get in the way of understanding what the article is about. 

Maybe I’m just being picky because, you know, these people are supposedly paid to write and edit well.  All I know is it bugs the hell out of me when I read these things.   

Understanding the Manchine

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Per my post about Media General’s reaction to bookofjoe’s habit of pasting their entire articles on his site with links and full attribution I’ve been having an interesting debate with Esbee in the comments.   One of the things that the debate highlights for me is the fact that old-media norms and rules are being challenged by new media tools and habits and the old-media owners are struggling with how to deal with it.  In particular I think many of us are having a hard time grasping the evolution of what some call the internet and what others call the web.  Just when most of us were beginning to get comfortable with how the web had changed information delivery and consumption the web was revamped and now readers have become cut-paste-sharers.  This evolution has been stamped by some as "Web 2.0" and it’s literally changing how people use information, but pity the person who tries to explain the "hows", "whats" and "whys" of Web 2.0.  That’s why I found the video below by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University so compelling (hat tip to Ed Cone for the link).  It’s the best explanation I’ve yet seen for what’s going on in new media, and I think it highlights the challenges that folks at old-media companies are facing.